February 16, 2016 4:15 am
Published by Michael
OWATONNA a There have been several Owatonna Public School meetings in the past few days, including a special meeting regarding the second set of expulsions this school year and a presentation at Mondayas Noon Rotary.
But before either meeting, there was a policy committee meeting with Owatonna School Board members and district officials as the group went through the annual process of reviewing old policies and implementing or updating others.
Not all meetings are in regard to facilities and the $78 million referendum projects already underway after its successful passage in November.
Superintendent Peter Grant, along with director of finance and operations, Tom Sager, and director of teaching and learning, Amy LaDue, spoke with Rotarians about referendum construction timelines and what projects are unfolding first.
Those projects include security upgrades and, come spring, crews will start some maintenance work on parking lots and begin constructing additions at several schools across the district like the junior high and two elementary schools, McKinley and Lincoln.
But security will be the first focus of the referendum. All schools will have safety upgrades to entrances, surveillance, and emergency communication systems by August, according to a conceptual schedule of construction from Wold Architects and Engineers.
Meanwhile, Wold is working with committees of staff and parents at the junior high and Willow Creek Intermediate School to brainstorm design and programming changes to come once Willow becomes an elementary school and the junior high transforms into a middle school by the 2017-2018 school year.
There were some questions after district officials’ brief presentation on Monday, one of which asked about the use of the portables that were installed recently.
Project plans for the elementary school additions are to add more classroom and gym space as well as replacing the two portable classrooms added to the sites after the district implemented all-day kindergarten and needed additional space. Plans are to move all the programs into Washington Elementary School once Washington goes offline for K-5 education.
Todd Hale asked about the elephant in the room, Owatonna High School, and when the discussion of building a new high school or remodeling the current site would be back on the table.
District officials and the Owatonna School Board plan on continuing conversations about the high school once the current referendum projects start wrapping up and the district looks to tackle its next facilities issues.
There was a closed special meeting Friday at 7 a.m. where Owatonna School Board members reviewed the educational, private data regarding the expulsion of two students.
Mark Sebring, school board chair, said that the board voted unanimously in favor of the expulsion of two students on Friday that would be aeffective immediately.a
Those students were placed on suspension and proposed for expulsion pursuant to the Pupil Fair Dismissal Act, which explains a student’s and parent’s due process rights when a student is dismissed from school.
The act includes a brochure of state and federal laws related to student discipline, harassment, and violence. Districts must provide the student and parent(s) a copy of the brochure each time a student is suspended, expelled, or excluded from school.
Parents of both students elected to waive the scheduled hearing with the understanding that by waiving the terms of expulsion, a proposal would be submitted for action to the school board.
Grounds for expulsions are usually aegregious acts related to violent behavior, repeated violations of district policies or rules, weapons, or drug related activities,a Grant said.
Because the expulsions are private, the board could not provide details, but the resolution stated studentsa conduct as follows:
aConduct significantly disrupts the rights of others to an education, or the ability of school personnel to perform their duties, or school-sponsored activitiesa and conduct that endangers the pupil or other pupils surrounding persons, including school district employees, or property of the school. Due to the nature of the conduct engaged in by the student, a term of suspension and expulsion as proposed by the school district is reasonable and appropriate.a
Formal expulsions are arather rare,a Grant added, and parents usually agree to awaivea the expulsion proceeding and withdraw their student ato avoid a permanent record.a
aExpulsions are serious actions taken by a school district and we prefer to have none obviously,a Grant said.
Expulsions are so rare that Grant said in his career as superintendent, heas had maybe five or six total. But so far this school year there has been two special meetings to approve expulsions of two students both instances.
Last week members of the Owatonna School Board serving on the policy committee met with Grant and director of human relations, Chris Picha, to review new and old policies, as done annually.
Districts like Owatonna take policy recommendations from the Minnesota School Board Association, but the district officials werenat keen on adding new policies that were redundant to existing policies or were unnecessary and instead added more workload to the committee during its annual review.
aThe most important policies are the ones that clarify,a said school board member Bob Wottreng, who said he didnat want to adopt a policy aunless itas needed for the fundamental mission of the [district.]a
Grant said the board school be acautiousa about adopting policies, especially when some are constantly changing with state statues and legislation, like medical marijuana, which the state school board is revising but districts like Owatonna have not yet implemented.
A subpoena policy was added to the list of district policies, as there was nothing controversial or complicated about having the measure in place for district employees.
As for a policy regarding drug testing, that policy has what the board described at atripwiresa and was tabled rather than adopted.
aIf youare going to do [drug testing] for employees, are you going to do it for kids?a Grant asked the group. aMost schools stay away from [the testing policy] because itas controversial. Whatas the thresholda whoas going to pay for ita is every employee going to be testeda are we going to drug test kids or only if court ordered?a
Picha said sheas anever thought about it that way,a in regards to Grantas comment about how the policy could lead into not just testing employees, but students.
The district is a chemical-free environment and Grant said heas unfortunately ahad to deal with employees under the influence on the job,a but there is no random testing, only testing under areasonable suspicion.a
Ron Van Nurden, school board clerk, said the policy seemed to be amore of a law enforcement piece than something we should worry about as a district,a and asked if Picha could rework the policy to make sense and be helpful for future instances.
aAthletics, do they have something? If they suspect a kid is on drugs and playing ball?a Van Nurden asked.
Grant said in that case, either a law enforcement or another student reports the student a or drug use evidence is found on social media, awhich is usually what happens,a he said a the district then simply follows Minnesota State High School League rules.
Van Nurden said that if that is already in place, adding another policy is unnecessary unless it helps Picha and the district in handling these types of situations.
The policy committee went over other policies like open enrollment and student recruitment, extended school year, student fundraising, and transportation of nonpublic school students. Some of the policies were passed over, others added or put on hold till next year when the committee would review the policies yet again.
Another set of policies with be discussed and reviewed in April and the facilities committee will meet at 12:30 p.m.
aThe most important policies are the ones that clarify,a said school board member Bob Wottreng, who said he didnat want to adopt a policy aunless itas needed for the fundamental mission of the [district.]a
